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MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 1 

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THE 



MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 



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GEO. "W. ANDERSON, D. D. 



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I 1884/ 



PHILADELPHIA I 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
1420 ChestDut Street. 




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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by the 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 



In all ages there have been those who, 
though hearing, understood not, and seeing, 
perceived not. Some could look on the varied 
wonders of the earth, or the glories that be- 
deck the heavens, but perceive no evidence of 
a Creator's wonderful work, and understand 
therefrom nothing of his "eternal power and 
Godhead." Others, while looking out on the 
moving world about them, or studying the 
history of the years that have gone by, can 
neither perceive nor understand that God's 
own hand has been working, and still works, 
for the fulfillment of his promise to the Son : 
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
of the earth for thy possession"; nor that he 
is working out his own eternal and immutable 
purpose — "That at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
things in earth, and things under the earth ; 



4 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

and that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, 
the Father." 

Yet, such as these step forth, from time 
to time, and challenge the followers of Christ 
with questions partly in contempt, and partly, 
it may be, in pity: "After the lapse of so 
many centuries of your missionary work, what 
have you accomplished? And what possible 
hope can you have that any larger success will 
attend your work in the future?" 

Those who propound such questions, have 
evidently never yet comprehended the nature 
and force of those motives that have origi- 
nated the work of Christian Missions, and car- 
ried it forward until the present day, when it 
justly claims a foremost place in any thorough, 
philosophical history of the world. These 
great, fundamental motives are loyalty to 
Christ Jesus, leading to a prompt and cheer- 
ful obedience to his commands; and love to 
him that comes from a knowledge of his 
grace and glory, and awakes a strong desire 
to make that grace and glory known, in order 
that others may put their trust in him, re- 
joice in his salvation, and join heart and soul 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 5 

in the service to which his disciples are called. 
If Christian men did not feel the impulse to 
make him and his glorious gospel known, 
would not the very stones of the earth cry out? 
There is a brief and simple narrative given 
by one of the Evangelists, that has exerted 
great power in Christian hearts for many cen- 
turies, and is destined to exert a greater power 
in the near future: "And Jesus came and 
spake unto them, saying, All power (author- 
ity) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father/ and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost: teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world." True loyalty to Christ will keep 
distinctly before the minds of his followers, 
that they are not their own, but "are bought 
with a price"; and will lead them to recog- 
nize his Great Commission as the funda- 
mental law of their life. In proportion to 
the faithfulness with which disciples have 
been taught to observe all that their Lord 
commanded, has the obligation of this Com- 
A2 



6 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

mission been felt and acted on. "When all 
the disciples are thus fully taught, the deeper 
instincts of the Christian heart will respond 
to the teaching, and then with new and irre- 
sistible momentum the missionary work will 
move onward. 

Those questioners that weigh the probabil- 
ities of success in missionary work in their 
own little, earthly scales, greatly mistake if 
they suppose that instructed Christians have 
been wont to judge by such an unworthy 
standard in days gone by, or ever will in days 
to come. 

In the beginning of this centui^ T , when the 
spirit of missions was growing in England and 
in this country, there were many that deemed 
the overthrow of long-established heathenism 
a work so vast as to be utterly hopeless. Such 
were some that bore the name of Christian, 
and even some that were known as ministers 
of the gospel of Christ. They asked despond- 
ingly : " What can we do against an evil of 
such enormous magnitude, and so consoli- 
dated?" John Foster, in 1820, replied to 
such, in words that are well fitted to rebuke 
those of the present day that would under- 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 7 

take no missionary work until they see a 
human probability of success. "What you 
can do" — he says — "if the expression means 
what precise quantity of effect a severe calcu- 
lation may promise from a given effort — is not 
always to be the rule of conduct; for this 
would be to deny the absolute authority of 
the Divine Master. We refuse to obey him 
for his own sake, if we assume to place the 
governing reason for all the services we are 
to render in a judgment which we think we 
can ourselves form, whether they will ac- 
complish an end worth the labor, and there- 
fore to fix their limit at the point beyond 
which we cannot with confidence extend our 
calculations. Such an arrogant impiety, car- 
ried to its full length, would at last demand 
of him that he should require no service, 
without placing clearly within our view all 
those consequences of it, on which his own 
just reasons for exacting it are founded — that 
is, it would become a demand to be exempted 
from all services whatever." 

The love of Christ, the other motive to 
which we have referred, always awakens a 
desire to spread abroad his gospel. It varies 



8 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

with the varying experience of different be- 
lievers, But, taking it in its aggregate effect, 
it exerts immense power in the world. In 
fact, these two motives have originated all of 
the best and most successful work that has 
ever been undertaken for the amelioration of 
the condition of the human race, and for its 
most real and permanent elevation. 

So long as the Great Commission remains 
in force, and salvation is prized above all 
price by the believer, and the love of Christ 
glows in Christian hearts, the missionary work 
will go on, whether the immediately apparent 
success be small or great. Loyal and loving 
hearts will always seek to make disciples to 
Christ ; the more loyal and the more loving 
they are, the greater their zeal in the blessed 
work. 

But it is not ° true that Christian missionary 
labors have hitherto been without appropriate 
fruit; nor is the prospect for the future by 
any means discouraging. The history of the 
past and the outlook to the future, are full of 
encouragement. There have been cheering 
results from previous labors, as the following 
pages will show ; and the prospect is that we 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 9 

are soon to see a largely increased work, and 
to rejoice in far more abundant success. 

POPULATION OF THE WORLD. 

The population of the world, and the re- 
ligious condition of its various nations and 
tribes, can only be ascertained approximately. 
But this is enough for all our necessities. 
Taking the largest estimate recently made, we 
find that they are thus located : 

Asia 834,707,000 

Europe 315,929,000 

Africa 205,679,000 

America 95,495,500 

Isles 4,113,000 

Total 1,455,923,500 

The present religious condition of these mil- 
lions has been estimated as follows : 

Buddhists 470,000,000 

Mohammedans 230,000,000 

Protestants 201,000,000 

Brahminists 190,816,000 

Koman Catholic 172,000,000 

Minor Heathen Keligions 102,682,500 

Greek Church 75,000,000 

Jews 14,275,000 

Parsees 150,000 

Total 1,455,923,500 



10 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

From these figures we may make other di- 
visions of the population of the world, that 
will be interesting, and may prove important : 

I. Monotheistic Eeligions: Christians of 

all Names, Mohammedans, and Jews. 692,275,000 

Polytheistic Eeligions 763,648,500 

II. Eeligions Eecognizing God as Ee- 
x vealed in the Old or the New Tes- 
tament : Christians and Jews 462, 275, 000 

All Other Eeligions 993,648,500 

III. Eeligions Eecognizing Christ 448,000,000 

All Other Eeligions 1,007,922,000 

IV. Christians Mainly Evangelical 201,000,000 

All other Eeligions 1,254,923,500 

V. Members of Evangelical Churches in 

the United States 10,000,000 

VI. Total Population of Asia and Africa... 1,040,386,000 

It will be seen from these figures, that 
nearly one-half of the population of the world 
are Monotheists ; that nearly one-third recog- 
nize the God of the Bible ; that five out of 
every sixteen of them regard Christ as the 
object of worship ; that about one-seventh are 
mainly evangelical Christians ; while there is 
one evangelical Christian in the United States 
to every one hundred and four of the inhabi- 
tants of the earth. 

In order to judge correctly in regard to the 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 11 

difficulty of the work that lies before us, we 
need to secure a just and accurate view of the 
field. It is desirable to understand its full 
magnitude, and to form some just conception 
of the hindrances that must be met at various 
points. At the same time it is desirable to 
obtain something like a correct idea of the 
number of laborers that may reasonably be 
expected to join in the work, of the resources 
at their command, and of the agencies that 
they can call into operation. 

It is said that, when the Lord gave the 
Great Commission to his disciples, the Roman 
Empire included almost the whole of the 
known world. The population of that Em- 
pire has been estimated to amount to one 
hundred and twenty millions. If that esti- 
mate were correct, we can form some idea of 
the magnitude of the undertaking; to which 
the Lord called them. If there were present 
only the twelve apostles, there was one mes- 
senger to every ten million of the population. 
But some suppose that there were five hun- 
dred present. If so, then there was one to 
every two hundred and forty thousand. The 
Acts of the Apostles informs us that, after the 



12 THE MISSIONABY OUTLOOK. 

preaching of Peter and John in the temple, 
"the number of the men came to be about 
five thousand," according to the Revision. In 
that case there was one to every twenty-four 
thousand. The work remained very nearly 
the same; but the apparent difficulty of the 
task diminished in proportion to the increase 
of the number of helpers. The converts, as 
they were gathered in, became helpers in the 
work; for we are told that when they were 
"all scattered abroad," "they went about 
preaching the word." 

The reported members of evangelical 
churches in the United States amount to ten 
million. It is not easy to compute the num- 
ber in Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and the 
isles of the sea. If they equal in number 
those in the United States, making a total of 
twenty million, there will be one laborer to 
every seventy-two of the population of the 
world. 

Looking at it thus, it would seem not only 
that the work of preaching the gospel to 
every living creature can be done, but that we 
may reasonably hope for its completion at an 
early date. 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 13 
PRESENT POSITION OF CHRISTIANS. 

The followers of Christ to-day stand in a 
very different position from that occupied by 
those to whom the Great Commission was first 
delivered. They were poor men of a subject 
and despised nation. They had few facilities 
for reaching the fields that they were to visit, 
and few helps in their work when they entered 
them. 

But a great change has come over the world 
since the early years of the first century of our 
era ; and a specially great improvement has 
been made in the position that the disciples of 
Christ occupy. 

Business enterprise has been doing, often 
almost unobserved by Christians, an impor- 
tant pioneer work in preparing ways of easy 
and speedy transportation for the messengers 
of salvation as they go forth to the various 
fields in which they are to labor. Every 
steamer that ploughs the ocean, every railroad, 
is an invaluable help in the prosecution of the 
work that the Lord has appointed to his 
people. 

God also has long been directing events in 
the grand march of history, that have given to 



14 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

the followers of Christ to-day a position from 
which they can carry on, with special advan- 
tage, their great evangelizing work. Centuries 
are at his command, and he often prepares 
from afar the way for the consummation of 
his glorious designs. The history of the cen- 
turies of our era reveals the guidance of a 
divine hand, leading on, step by step, toward 
the accomplishment of his wise, and holy, and 
gracious will. Works of mercy and works of 
judgment are alike governed by him, and 
alike are to be regarded as works of holy love, 
repressing evils, crime, corruption, and open- 
ing w r ays for the spread of truth and right- 
eousness. To trace minutely the evidences of 
God's care for his people and for the interests 
of the kingdom of Christ, through nearly 
nineteen centuries, would require volumes. 
It will only be necessary to refer to three in- 
stances, in order to show how his own hand 
prepared the way, and led the disciples of 
Christ onward to the vantage ground that 
they now occupy. 

THE OVERTHROW OF VARUS. 

This event leads us back almost to the be- 



THE MISSIONABY OUTLOOK. 15 

ginning of the Christian Era. While Jesus 
was yet a boy, perhaps in the very year when 
he sat with the doctors in the temple, hearing 
them, asking them questions, and causing 
them to marvel at his precocious wisdom, 
events were transpiring that have had a pow- 
erful influence on the development and present 
condition of three of the prominent nations 
of the worlds — Germany, England, and the 
United States. 

In A. T>. 7, P. Quintilius Varus was sent by 
the Roman Emperor Augustus as Governor to 
Germany, with the design to bring the whole 
of that country into subjection to the Imperial 
authority, and introduce the laws and customs 
of Rome into that land, which Dr. Thomas 
Arnold described as " a land uncorrupted by 
Roman or any other mixture ; the birth-place 
of the most moral race of men that the world 
has yet seen— of the soundest laws— the least 
violent passions, and the fairest domestic and 
civil virtues." Varus was rich, imperious, and 
accustomed to deal with servile Syrians, whom 
he had ruled for some years previous. His 
natural tendencies, and his Asiatic associations 
made him unfit to deal with the tribes of 



16 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

Germany, as yet unaccustomed to the Roman 
yoke. In A. D. 9, the German chief, Her- 
mann, or Arminius, as he was called by the 
Romans, moved the tribes of Germany to 
resist the efforts for their subjugation. Un- 
der his leadership they fell upon the Roman 
legions that Varus was leading into the heart 
of their country, and routed them so thor- 
oughly that few of them ever made their way 
back to the Rhine. It was a momentous 
victory. It saved Germany from the power 
of Rome, and from those corruptions that were 
spreading through the whole frame-work of 
the Roman Empire, and preparing the way for 
her fall. The full significance of the victory, 
however, was not seen until long centuries 
had elapsed. Professor Creasy, the English 
historian, writing a few years ago of the 
consequences of that triumph of Hermann, 
says : " Had Arminius been supine or unsuc- 
cessful, our German ancestors would have 
been enslaved or exterminated in their origi- 
nal seats along the Eyder or the Elbe. This 
island would never have borne the name of 
England, and we, the great English nation, 
whose race and language are now overrun- 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 17 

ning the earth, from one end to another, 
would have been cut off from existence/' 
Dr. Arnold said, that it "for ever confined 
the Romans to the western side of the Rhine, 
and preserved the Teutonic nation — the re- 
generating element in modern Europe — safe 
and free." 

As the people of the United States trao2 
their ancestry back, through England, to the 
Anglo-Saxons of Germany, the destiny of 
North America also was depending on die 
success or failure of the arms of Hermann 
on that day, in the Teutoberger Forest, in 
the heart of Germany. Americans therefore 
must ever look with special interest to the 
Hermann monument, which crowns the Gro- 
tenberg, near Detmold; and should join with 
Germany and England in devout thanks to 
God, who strengthened the arms of the Ger- 
man hero, and gave him the victory. 

DEFEAT OF TPIE SARACEXS BY CHARLES M ARTEL. 

Another providential interposition was 

vouchsafed in the year 732. At that time 

Britain was — as it had long been — the scene 

of constant conflicts between its rival chiefs. 

B2 



18 THE MISSIONABY OUTLOOK. 

These were the cause of fearful suffering 
throughout the land, and at the same time 
prevented that union among the yarious tribes 
which w T as necessary to the permanent peace 
and the greatest prosperity of the whole. 
Instead of unity with its many blessings, 
there was imminent danger of anarchy with 
all of its horrors. 

At this critical time there arose another, 
and a serious danger in the south. The Sara- 
cens, for more than a hundred years, had been 
moving onward in their fiery zeal, converting 
the nations with the sword to Islam. They 
were steadily moving forward in their career 
of conquest towards the west and the north. 
They had advanced through the countries of 
northern Africa, and taken possession of 
Spain. Thence they passed in vast hordes 
into Gaul, which was then, like Britain, in 
a formative state. The fierce and fanatical 
invaders seemed likely to cono i uer the coun- 
try, and thence to rush onward toward 
Britain, mastering also its warring tribes, 
moulding the character of the people afresh, 
and settling the religion and the destiny of 
the island for long centuries. They were 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 19 

met, however, at the battle of Tours, by 
Charles Martel, "The Hammer of God," and 
routed with terrible slaughter. The remnant 
of the forces fled across the Pyrenees, never 
to pass northward again. Thus was the 
providence of God displayed, and England 
saved from Mohammedan domination, and 
prevented from becoming a stronghold of 
the Mohammedan faith. 1 

VICTORIES OF FREDERIC THE GREAT, CLIVE, AND WOLFE. 

A connected series of events occurred at a 
much later date, but bore evidence, as did the 
two former deliverances, of a divine protective 
care. In the middle of the last century, the 
destinies of Europe, North America, and 
India, and perhaps of a large portion of 
Asia, were hanging in the balance. Roman 
Catholic France was then making strenuous 

1 The victory of Charles Martel had a direct influence 
in securing to England and North America the Christian 
light and liberty that they now enjoy. In the evangeli- 
cal work now carried on so successfully in France by 
English and American Christians, we see the providen- 
tial repayment of the long-standing obligation. May the 
good work speed on until France shall bear no secondary 
part in missionary labors for the heathen world ! 



20 THE M1SS10NABY OUTLOOK, 

efforts to secure a great extension of its power 
in North America and in India, and had 
achieved such success as to encourage the 
most sanguine hopes. 

Bancroft, in his "History of the United 
States," says: "The American question was: 
Shall the continued colonization of North 
America be made under the auspices of 
English Protestantism and popular liberty, 
or shall the tottering legitimacy of France, 
in its connection with Roman Catholic Chris- 
tianity, win for itself new empire in that 
hemisphere ? " 

The question in India was, whether the 
supremacy of that land should be grasped by 
France, to establish there a base for a Roman 
Catholic Propagandism, aiming to bring the 
populous countries of Asia under its control. 
Papal priests, from Francis Xavier onward, 
had dreamed of the conversion of India, China, 
and so of Asia, to the Roman Catholic faith. 
But these expectations were not to be realized. 
Again God, in his providence, said, " Hitherto 
shalt thou come, but no further." 

Frederic the Great, of Prussia, in 1756, 
threw a large body of troops into Silesia, 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 21 

and thus was begun "The Seven Years' 
War," in which, before it ended, Austria, 
Russia, Poland, Sweden, and France, were 
enlisted against him* Bancroft says of this 
war: "The question of the European Conti- 
nent was: Shall a Protestant Revolutionary 
kingdom be permitted to rise up and grow 
strong in its heart? Considered in its unity 
as interesting mankind, the great question 
was : Shall the Reformation developed to the 
fullness of Free Inquiry, succeed in its pro- 
test against the Middle Ages?" 

That long war, in which Frederic the Great 
contended successfully against fearful odds, 
was fatal to the enterprises of France in 
America and India. The energy and ability 
and indomitable perseverance of Frederic won 
great victories, which — although he never so 
designed — were really, as Bancroft says : " The 
triumphs of Protestantism." The severe and 
protracted struggle in Europe not only termi- 
nated favorably to the Protestant movement 
in that continent; but it gave to England a 
favorable opportunity to carry on the contests 
in America and India. Both were wrested 
from the grasp of France, and the shaping of 



22 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

their destiny was secured to English Protest- 
antism. 

There were three leaders and three battles 
during this protracted conflict that will ever 
occupy a prominent position in the history of 
the world, but especially in the history of 
Germany, England, and the United States. 
These were Lord Clive, and the battle of 
Plassy in India, June 23, 1757, in which 
the forces of France were met and conquered; 
Frederic the Great, and the battle of Leuthen, 
near Breslau, December 5, 1757, the turning- 
point of the tide of victory in "The Seven 
Years' War "; and General Wolfe, and the 
battle of the Plains of Abraham, above 
Quebec, "the battle-field of empire," Sep- 
tember 13, 1759, which freed North America 
from French dominion and Papal rule. 

It should be remembered that these three 
decisive victories, vitally affecting the tempo- 
ral and religious interests of three continents, 
followed very closely on a day of fasting and 
prayer in England, February 6, 1756, im- 
mediately after the declaration of war with 
France; a day that should be gratefully re- 
called to memory when we sing the well- 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 23 

known hymn of Miss Anne Steele, composed 
for that occasion : 

See, gracious God, before thy throne 

Thy mourning people bend ; 
? Tis on thy sovereign grace alone 

Our humble hopes depend. 

There is clear indication of a guiding hand 
during all the years of the Christian Era, 
giving direction to that course of events 
which has given to the world Germany, 
Great Britain, and the United States, such 
as we see them to-day — three nations that 
have been the chief agents in carrying for- 
ward that missionary work which has already 
been abundantly blessed, and to whom we 
look as leaders still in the larger w r ork that 
we expect to be done in the near future. 

It were easy to show that the events to 
which we have referred have been influential 
also in securing to Denmark, the Netherlands, 
Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland, their 
special advantages; for the "victories of 
Protestantism" have inured to their advan- 
tage also; and when we speak of the agencies 
for the spread of the gospel, we are devoutly 
thankful for the good work that they have 



24 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

already done, and are now doing, and for 
the cheering prospect of their increase in 
zeal, in labors, and in fruit-fulness. 

These eight nations, with their colonies, 
hold under their control one-third of the 
land surface of the globe, and their popu- 
lation is said to be more than one-fourth of 
the total population of the world. In in- 
telligence, energy, and enterprise, in manu- 
factures and commerce and wealth, they 
stand pre-eminent. Thus they are peculiarly 
fitted to reach, and influence, and mould, 
other less highly-favored nations. 

When we come to seek for the best agents, 
humanly speaking, for the work of proclaim- 
ing to all the world the good news of the 
salvation that is in Christ Jesus, we find that 
these nations, in addition to their natural 
endowments and their material advantages, 
are those that have most generally received 
the truth as it is in Jesus, and have most 
faithfully maintained it in its primitive 
purity. There has been a special provi- 
dence leading, through long centuries, these 
nations onward toward the commanding po- 
sition that they now T occupy in the world; 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 25 

and, furthermore, there have been peculiar 
manifestations of the grace of God toward 
them, gathering out of them great multi- 
tudes of true disciples, and fitting them to 
be faithful, zealous, and successful agents for 
making known to others the gospel that 
they have received. 

These gifts of God's providence and grace 
have not been conferred at random, nor with- 
out a distinct purpose. The Scriptures teach 
us that there is no w r ork that men can under- 
take in this world that can be compared in 
importance with the work of evangelizing the 
earth, that work which the Great Commission 
lays on each believer. We recognize the gifts 
which a Christian man has received as God's 
gifts ; the best use of those gifts we believe to 
be God's call, the indication of his will, as to 
the way in which they should be employed. 
If the followers of Christ, in any nation, have 
gifts that fit them specially for the best work 
that God ever appoints to men, then it is ob- 
viously his will that the gifts should be used 
in that work. If this be so, then Christian 
men and women in these favored lands should 
ask how the gifts which they have received 
o 



26 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

may be most promptly and wisely and success- 
fully used for the conversion of the world to 
God. If any man lack the wisdom necessary 
in determining the best use of his best gifts, 
let him ask of God, and it shall be given unto 
him. That is a blessed promise when one is 
considering merely his individual obligations 
and opportunities. How full of blessing it is 
when great numbers of the followers of Christ 
are inquiring how they may best combine and 
use their best gifts for the salvation of the 
perishing, and the glory of God ! 

PREPARATION OF THE FIELD. 

We have noticed the preparatory process by 
which God has brought into the hands of his 
people the means of making a rapid and suc- 
cessful movement for the spread of the gospel 
throughout the whole world. Let us now 
turn our eyes to some of the evidences that he 
also has been preparing the field for earnest 
Christian labor; so that his people may go 
forth over all its length and breadth in the 
performance of their sacred mission. 

Two barriers have stood for ages in the 
way of the spread of the gospel ; one, the ex- 



lEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK, 27 

ercise of despotic power over the minds and 
consciences of men ; the other, akin to it, the 
arbitrary closing of the doors of a nation, in 
order to shut the foreigner out, and to keep 
its own subjects within. From the days of 
the apostles, Jews, Imperial Rome, Papal 
Rome, and churches that had not freed them- 
selves from the spirit that animated Jew, 
Heathen, and Papist, in turn have claimed 
the right to dictate what men should believe, 
binding their minds with bonds of human 
devising, and laying on their consciences bur- 
dens that God never imposed. 

But of late the conviction has been growing 
rapidly, that the minds and consciences of men 
must be free — their minds free to search out 
and to grasp all of truth that God has taught 
for their enlightenment, their guidance in life, 
and their happiness here and hereafter — their 
consciences free to obey every word of God by 
which he makes known to them what they are 
to believe, and what he would have them 
do. So widely and rapidly has this convic- 
tion spread, that some have feared the result. 
It is very true that there are dangers attend- 
ing religious as well as political freedom. 



28 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

The true way to guard against them is not to 
fetter the minds of men and reduce them to 
niere machines, but to preach the gospel to 
them, with *the power of God sent down from 
heaven. The gospel is "the power of God 
unto salvation, to every one that believeth"; 
and from what spiritual dangers that threaten 
them are not believers guarded by that salva- 
tion ? 

The opening of the nations of the world 
to the missionaries of the gospel has been 
proceeding with wonderful rapidity. In the 
year 1871, Dr. Rufus Anderson, long con- 
nected with the American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions, wrote that he 
remembered, " When there was no missionary 
in Turkey; when missionaries were excluded 
from the greater part of India; when no 
missionaries were in Burmah, none in China, 
none in the Indian Archipelago, none in 
Africa, except Sierra Leone and the southern 
extremity of the continent ; and none in the 
great island world of the Pacific, except a 
small group in the south." He might also 
have added, none in Japan, with its thirty- 
four million of people. 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 29 

But now, Turkey, India, Burmah, Assam, 
Siam, China, Japan, almost the entire conti- 
nent of Africa, and the islands of the seas, 
are opened to Christian missionaries. There 
is ample room in these wide and promising 
fields for all the laborers that the churches 
have hitherto been able to send out. The cry 
is for laborers, not for open doors. If the 
time draws on when the multitude of laborers 
becomes too large for these open fields, w r e 
may expect that God will sweep away all 
remaining obstacles, so that every spot on the 
face of the earth where man dwells may be 
accessible. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WORK. 

We need to survey the wide missionary 
field in all its length and breadth, in order to 
see what labor has been performed and the 
measure of blessing which God has bestowed. 
Such a survey cannot fail to impress us with 
a sense of the grandeur of the work, and to 
fill us with devout gratitude for the manifest 
approval that has been vouchsafed by the 
Great Head of the church. 

If we spread out the map of the world 

C2 



30 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

before us, and study it carefully, we shall see 
that Asia and Africa are the two great foreign 
fields, to which the missionary work should 
be specially directed. They together contain 
a population of more than a thousand million, 
more than two-thirds of the total population 
of the world. 

Three of the countries of Asia have at- 
tracted special attention as missionary fields, 
from the greatness of their population and 
the position that they occupy. These are 
India, including Assam and Burmah; China; 
and Japan. Siam has also been long the 
scene of missionary lalor, though having a 
much smaller area and population than the 
others. 

India has been termed " the chief scene of 
Protestant mission work, upon which, as 
upon no other, it has concentrated its numer- 
ous and most powerful agencies from all 
sides, in order to make a general assault 
against the chief bulwark of darkness, Hin- 
dooism." It is only about seventy years 
since India was opened to missionary labors. 
The progress at first was very slow — so slow 
as to lead many to doubt the possibility of 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 31 

any permanent success. After seventeen years, 
the number of converts was said to be only 
twenty-seven thousand. But in 1840, they 
had risen to fifty-seven thousand; in 1850, to 
one hundred and twenty-seven thousand ; in 
I860, to more than two hundred and thirteen 
thousand; in 1870, to three hundred and eigh- 
teen thousand; while from 1870 to 1882, they 
are reported to have more than doubled, the 
increase being one hundred and fourteen per 
cent. In Ongole, the mission among the 
Telugus was established by the. American 
Baptist Missionary Union. In the year 
1878, in three months, ten thousand were 
added to the churches. In that mission, as 
stated recently in this country by Dr. Clough, 
the first church was organized in 1867, with 
eight members; in April, 1883, they reported 
twenty thousand eight hundred members. 
These few statistics will suffice to show that 
the call for more laborers is made, because 
"the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers 
are few." 

After the lapse of sixty years, such prog- 
ress had been made that a writer in the 
British Quarterly Review bore the following 



32 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

testimonies to the work that had then been 
done : 

"They [the native converts] are now learn- 
ing to regard the support of their own pas- 
tors and their own religious institutions and 
schools, not merely as a charitable work to 
which they may contribute or not, as they 
feel inclined, but as a duty, as an obligation 
from which they cannot escape. They are 
also learning to regard the diffusion of 
Christianity, the extension of the boundaries 
of the Christian Church, and the moral and 
religious improvement of the native Christian 
community, not merely as the duty of the 
foreign missionaries, but also, and chiefly, as 
their own. And they are learning both 
these lessons so generally and so steadily, 
that it seems now impossible for any one 
to predict, with any degree of probability, 
as it used to be predicted, that, if from any 
cause the English people were obliged to 
abandon India, the Christianity introduced 
by English missionaries would, within a few 
years afterward, disappear." 

He proceeds to give farther testimony to 
the intrinsic excellence of the change in the 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 33 

Christian converts. He says that one who 
sees them in their villages and their homes — 

" Cannot fail to have concluded that the 
adoption of the Christian religion . . is to 
be regarded as the adoption of better prin- 
ciples of action and a higher aim in life ; 
that it is a change from a lower to a higher 
civilization, from ignorance to knowledge, 
from neglect to culture, from apathy to prog- 
ress; that, in short, it is 'life from the dead.'" 

There is yet a great work to be done, but 
the experience and observation of all the 
preceding years have indicated the means of 
reaching all classes of the population. One 
feature of the work is very encouraging — 
the special efforts that are now made for the 
women and children of India. Every mis- 
sionary gathering has heard the cry from 
India for Christian women, some with medi- 
cal training, and some with general Christian 
culture, to labor for the bodily and spiritual 
welfare of millions of native women, both 
rich and poor, who suffer and die without 
medical care, and with no one to make 
known to them the glad tidings of redemp- 
tion. Woman's work has been clearly pointed 



34 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

out, and the number of Christian women who 
are fitted and willing to enter these fields is 
increasing. "A Female Medical Mission in 
every populous centre, is one of the most 
crying needs of India," says one writer. 
"The Zenana Mission is an essential factor 
in the conversion of India," says Dr. Christ- 
lieb. The harvest is ripe, and the reapers 
will be speedily multiplied; for many are 
coming to join in the earnest cry to the 
Lord of the harvest that laborers may be 
sent forth. 

At the Mildmay Missionary Conference, in 
London, October, 1878, Dr. J. N. Murdock, 
Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary 
Union, gave a graphic account of the Karen 
Mission in Burmah. He mentions three re- 
sults: First "The gathering of wandering 
and sometimes predatory hordes into settled 
and well-ordered communities." Into several 
of the villages, the scattered Christian Karens 
" were gathered, and started in a new sphere 
of life and activity, with no other civilizing 
appliances than the chapel and the school- 
house." "The scattered dwellers on the 
mountains, and the restless wanderers on the 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 35 

plains, seemed to flow together into numer- 
ous centres, which became fountains of sweet 
waters, enriching and beautifying the arid 
wastes around them." Second. " The organiza- 
tion of hundreds of Christian churches, served 
by an efficient body of native pastors and 
teachers." Third. "The creation and organi- 
zation of an effective evangelizing force among 
the natives; the only force, so far as relates to 
human instrumentality, that can succeed in 
bringing the multitude of the people to Christ. 
The churches in Bassein have missionaries 
already among the Karen tribes in the dis- 
trict of Prome, among the Red Karens in the 
neighborhood of Toungoo, and among the 
Kakyens, north of Bhamo. This is the ulti- 
mate object of all the work of organization 
and preparation which has been done hitherto. 
They are to be the swift messengers of Christ 
to the scattered tribes of their people in Bur- 
mah, in China, and in Siam." 

In the close of his address, he uttered some 
words that are worthy of a permanent place 
in the memory of Christians : 

"It only remains to point to this work 
among the Karens in Burmah as a proof of 



36 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

the enduring and ever-vital power of the gos- 
pel of Christ over men at their worst. It is 
now, as of old, the power of God unto salva- 
tion, to the Jew and to the Gentile. It still 
enlightens the ignorant, tames the barbarous, 
lifts up the degraded, and saves the lost. 
When men deny the power of Christianity 
over the masses of mankind, we may point to 
what it has done for this weak, wild, wander- 
ing, degraded race, and rest the issue upon the 
stupendous fact." 

The history of missionary work in the 
Chinese Empire is full of interest and 
encouragement. The field early attracted 
the attention of Christians, from the re- 
ported denseness of the population, and the 
fact that it seemed hopelessly barred against 
all foreigners. It was formerly thought to 
contain from four hundred to four hundred 
and fifty million inhabitants — one-third > of 
the population of the world. 1 There are many 

1 It is impossible to obtain authoritative statistics. Dr. 
S. Wells Williams, the leading authority on China and 
its affairs, placed the population at three hundred and 
eighty million ; but recently it has been stated that re- 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 37 

yet living; in the churches of America and 
Europe, who remember the earnest prayers 
that were wont to be offered for the breaking 
down of the barriers that prevented the in- 
gress of missionaries. At that time, the only 
possible way to reach its people was by the 
establishment of missions in the lands adjoin- 
ing, to which Chinese traders resorted. 

In the year 1835, missionaries of the Amer- 
ican Baptist Missionary Union were sent out 
to labor for the Chinese. Dr. Dean and Mr. 
Reed were located at Bangkok, Siam, which 
was thought to be a favorable point. Mr. 
Shuck settled at Macao. In 1839, Dr. Legge, 
from England, went out, desiring to reach the 
Chinese, but had to stop at Malacca. 

In 1842, however, the real w r ork among 
the people, in their own land, began. Hong- 
kong was ceded to Great Britain, and five 
ports were opened to foreigners. Dr. Dean, 
Mr. Shuck, and Mr. Roberts proceeded soon 

bellions, famines, and the opium scourge have greatly 
reduced the population, so that at present it does not 
number much more than two hundred and forty mil- 
lion. Even that is nearly five times the population of 
the United States. 

D 



38 - 1HE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

after to that place. In 1843, twelve mission- 
aries, of different societies, met there to con- 
sider what plans should be adopted for future 
work in the Empire. At that time the num- 
ber of converts was six. That was only forty- 
one years ago. From that time, however, the 
•work increased. But so late as the year 1865, 
there were missionary stations only in seven of 
the eighteen provinces of the Empire. All of 
these were in the east. Eleven provinces, 
with a population three times as large as the 
present population of the United States, were 
as yet unoccupied. But at the present time, 
all of these provinces have some fixed mis- 
sionary stations. 1 Missionaries and Bible col- 
porteurs have itinerated extensively, and a 
map of the Empire, indicating the routes they 
have traveled, shows lines running in different 
directions, like the lines of railroad that cross 
each other on a map of the United States, or 
of Europe. In 1878, it was said that they 
had traveled more than thirty thousand miles 

*In 1865, the China Inland Mission, undenomina- 
tional, was organized to take up and push on the work 
in the inland provinces, and has continued it with great 
zeal and cheering success. 



THE mSSlONABY OUTLOOK. 39 

in the interior provinces, and probably a larger 
number of miles since that date. 

Two tracks have been traversed from Shang- 
hai, following at first the Yang-tsi-kiang for 
more than a thousand miles into the province 
of Si-chuen. At this point, one turned to the 
northwest toward Thibet, and thence down 
through the province of Yun-nan to Bhamo, 
in Burmah, and so on, through Mandelay, to 
Rangoon. The other went by the most direct 
route to Bhamo and Rangoon. 

Mr. McCarthy, one of these missionaries, at 
the Mildmay Conference, London, 1878, said': 
" Missionaries from China will understand the 
advantages that now present themselves, when 
I tell them that, during a journey of three 
thousand miles in China, I was not called on 
once to present my passport ; nor had I any 
occasion to appeal to a magistrate for aid of 
any kind. Yet in every city, town, and vil- 
lage through which I passed, I was enabled to 
preach the gospel to large numbers of people. 
I did not count them. I did not want to 
count them. I was enabled to leave books 
and tracts, a few in each place; and I had 
opportunities of speaking to many people." 



40 TEE MISSION ART OUTLOOK 

One fact in regard to the colporteur work 
in the provinces of Shan-si and Shen-si in 
the extreme north, on the borders of Mon- 
golia, is worthy of special notice. Shan-si 
has an area of sixty-five thousand nine hun- 
dred and fifty-six square miles, and a popula- 
tion of fourteen million. Shen-si has eighty- 
one thousand two hundred and fifteen square 
miles, and ten million. Their total area is 
more than three times that of Pennsylvania ; 
and their population nearly one-half as large 
as that of the United States. Missionary 
work was first commenced in these provinces 
in the year 1876. A letter from Shanghai, 
in April, 1882, says of "the visitation" of 
Shan-si and Shen-si : " With the possible ex- 
ception of two small cities almost inaccessibly 
situated among the hills of the former prov- 
ince 1 (which may still remain un visited), 
every city and every important tow T n has 
been reached by the members of our mission, 
some of them repeatedly. And not only has 

1 These cities could not be reached by the carts 
used for conveying Scriptures and books carried for 
sale; but have no doubt been reached on foot by some 
of the laborers before this. 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 41 

the gospel been preached in them, but many 
thousands of portions of Scripture and Chris- 
tian tracts have been sold." It is doubtful if, 
in any other country, an equal territory has 
been so speedily traversed, or an equal popu- 
lation so thoroughly reached. 

A great preparatory work has been done, 
and done too in the face of very great obsta- 
cles. One obstacle has been the inveterate and 
deep hostility of the Chinese toward foreigners. 
For another, the British Government is di- 
rectly responsible. In spite of the settled 
opposition of the Emperor of China, and of 
the better informed of his people, the military 
and naval powers of the British have forced 
upon them their Indian opium, which is now 
the bane of China, poisoning the very founts 
of its life. The necessary result has been to 
make the long-standing hatred of foreigners 
the more reasonable, and the more difficult to 
overcome. 

But the presence of these multiplied mis- 
sionaries moving to and fro in all the prov- 
inces of the Empire, and the kind, courteous, 
benevolent spirit that they have manifested, 
have greatly softened these hard and hostile 
D2 



42 THE MISSIONARY 0U1L00K. 

feelings. The zeal and liberality that they 
manifested during the fearful famine that 
almost depopulated some portions of the 
northern provinces in 1877 and 1878 had 
also a powerful influence. Millions, it is said, 
were starving, and the missionaries were the 
almoners of large benevolent funds, contrib- 
uted for the help of those who had no other 
aid. Five of these sunk and died from their 
efforts to serve those perishing all around 
them. Such efforts, so unselfish, so exhaust- 
ing, made a deep impression upon the people 
who witnessed or heard of them. It put be- 
fore them foreigners in a new and a favorable 
light. It enabled them to understand that 
even from England came men of a far dif- 
ferent stamp from those who forced their 
debasing and destructive drug upon an un- 
willing people by fire and sword. 

Still these obstacles have not been fully 
overcome. They will continue to be barriers 
in the way of the missionary work, so long 
as the use of opium is debasing millions, and 
sending — as it is reported now to be doing 
— one hundred and thirty-six thousand of its- 
victims yearly to the suicide's grave. The 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 43 

traffic is said to give to India — a dependency 
of a Christian country — an annual income of 
forty-five million dollars. But it is to be 
hoped that the voice of British Christians, of 
Christians throughout the world, will in time 
prevail, and make the British Parliament spurn 
the thought of putting such foul blood-money 
into their Indian treasury. When that day 
comes, we may expect to see the number of 
those who traverse the length and breadth of 
China vastly increased, and the multitudes of 
China ready to say, as the prophet of old: 
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the 
feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that 
publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings 
of good, that publisheth salvation." 

Reginald Radcliffe, Esq., of Liverpool, 
made some interesting remarks at a mission- 
ary meeting in London. Speaking of those 
itinerants in China, he said: "I cannot call 
them missionaries. I call them by a more 
honorable name. I say that they are merely 
the spies, and they have gone out and looked 
at the land; and thank God, some of them 
have tarried there a long time, and they have 
brought of the fruit of the land. But you 



44 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

do not tell me, after listening to what has 
taken place to-night in reference to these 
millions of China, that this is an institution 
for missioning China. It is simply sending 
out men as spies, to come and bring us a 
report of the land, and to make us utterly and 
entirely inexcusable if we do not begin to mis- 
sion China; but on a vastly under scale" 

The work of missions in Japan is of still 
more recent date. With a population of more 
than thirty million, the country was long reso- 
lutely closed against foreigners, and it was a 
capital crime for any of its people to leave it 
without the sanction of the government. It 
seemed as though only by slow approaches, 
continued through an indefinitely long time, 
could the gospel win its way into the midst 
of this people. In 1859 and 1860, the first 
missionary work began ) but it was not until 
1872 that stated public Christian preaching 
was allowed. It is only twelve years since the 
first Christian church was organized in Japan, 
composed of eleven members. At the present 
time there are reported eighteen Missionary 
and three Bible Societies working in the field, 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 45 

with two hundred and thirty-six teachers, 
and four thousand two hundred and forty- 
eight members. In 1874, one of the natives 
of Japan, who is now laboring as a missionary 
in the Empire, said in this country, that the 
people were rejecting the worship of nature 
as insufficient; that they had thrown away 
Romanism after it had gained more than half 
a million of nominal converts, because it held 
them in iron bands. He gave it as his own 
conviction, that they would steadily tend to- 
wards Protestant Christianity, with its attend- 
ant liberty and growth. From the indications 
since that time, it would seem that his judg- 
ment was correct. The missionaries have from 
the very first been steadily gaining the confi- 
dence of both rulers and people. The Jap- 
anese converts are said to be very active, zeal- 
ous, and self-reliant; ready to originate and 
to carry out efforts for spreading the knowl- 
edge of the gospel — a large proportion of the 
men who have been converted being engaged 
in the work. A recent writer says : " God's 
hand has been in the work day by day, is 
plainly in it now, and it may be that there, 
in 'The Land of the Rising Sun,' we may 



46 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

live to see a nation born in a day." It is 
evident that the country is in a transition 
state, and the changes going on have been 
so radical and rapid, that it becomes espe- 
cially important that the gospel should be 
fully and faithfully preached, lest seven other 
demons, worse than the first, enter in and 
make their abode with the people, and their 
iast state be worse than the first. 

Now is the time for action, as a recent letter 
from Mr. Davis, a missionary of the American 
Board in the Province of Echigo — about one 
hundred and fifty miles north of Tokio — in- 
dicates. The opinion of the Buddhist priests, 
that he quotes, is fully justified by numerous 
facts in the history of the Mission : 

"This Province of Echigo is regarded as 
the stronghold of Buddhism, and it has been 
said that whatever other provinces may do 
with Christianity, this one will remain firm. 
. . . Nevertheless, something is coming over 
the minds of the blind leaders of the blind ; 
the priests are beginning to tremble for their 
ark. 

"At one of their preaching-places in this 
city [Niigata] last Sunday, where six of their 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 47 

priests were present, they acknowledged that 
Buddhism is rapidly waning, and Christianity 
as rapidly gaining, 'so that/ as they put it, 'by 
the time the present generation of Obasan and 
Ojisan (grandmothers and grandfathers), have 
passed away, Christianity will have conquered 
and become the prevailing religion of Japan/ 
Is our Saul become one of the prophets? 
We missionaries have felt for ihe last two 
years that Japan may become, by the end 
of the century, as Christian as Madagascar 
or the Sandwich Islands, if only the various 
Missionary Societies at work here will pour in 
their men and women now, that, after their 
three or more years of preparation, they may 
take our places as Ave fall, or may at least come 
to our succor when we are engaged in the heat 
of the battle. But I had not expected the 
priests, especially those of Niigata, to set the 
same time for the triumph of ImmanuePs 
army." 

The population of Africa is estimated to be 
more than two hundred and five million. It 
has long been known as "The Dark Conti- 
nent." The darkness, "even darkness that 



48 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

may be felt," that came over the land of 
Egypt, seems to have been the precursor of a 
moral darkness that spread and brooded over 
the continent itself for long centuries. The 
physical features of the larger part of the con- 
tinent, its climate, its people, were long as ut- 
terly unknown as though it belonged to one of 
the distant planets in our solar system. Sir 
Thomas Fowell Buxton, in 1878, told how the 
vast central regions of Africa were described 
by the African Association in 1788. "They 
denied the existence of great lakes and broad 
rivers flowing from the centre to the coast. 
They spoke of the great mass of Central 
Africa as consisting of vast deserts bare of 
vegetation, bare of animal life, and above 
all, bare of men." 

The discoveries that have corrected these 
erroneous views, like many of those that 
have brought some of the mightier powers 
of nature under the control of man, were 
delayed, no doubt, in the wisdom and the 
goodness of God. But when the world was 
prepared to use these discoveries, and not 
abuse them, then the men arose who brought 
them to light. 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 49 

In entering on his public life, David Liv- 
ingstone desired to go to China. He once 
said: "I had fondly hoped to have gained 
access to that then closed empire, by means 
of the healing art." But the Opium War 
was then raging, with no prospect of a speedy 
termination. During this period of suspense 
he heard Dr. Moffat speak of his labors in 
South Africa, and was finally led to enter 
that field in 1840. He was sent out by the 
London Missionary Society with directions, as 
soon as possible, to turn his attention to the 
north, in order to gain a knowledge of the 
country and of its inhabitants. Physically, 
mentally, and spiritually, he was peculiarly 
fitted for his great work. The British Quar- 
terly, soon after the publication of his last 
journal, said of him: "Livingstone went 
forth to his mission furnished with all with 
which his Scotch nature and training could 
endow him ; with noble traditions of honesty, 
thoroughness, and godliness, handed down 
from his sires. He took with him into the 
field a sagacity, a mastery of men, a power 
of self-devotion, and a faith in God, probably 
unmatched in this generation; and he did 



50 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

with them altogether a matchless work." 
His travels, protracted for thirty years, ex- 
tending from the eastern coast to the western, 
from the Cape Colony almost to the equator, 
and the light that he shed on that vast unex- 
plored region — all are well-known and will 
never be forgotten, either in this world or the 
next. 

The plans, however, that he had formed 
were not all carried on to their perfect reali- 
zation. The reviewer above quoted said: 

" Our great traveler has been laid dead in 
his tracks, when the problem of ages was on 
the eve of solution; when another year of 
bodily vigor might have brought him home 
triumphant, and enabled him to bind the 
wreath which he so passionately coveted 
around his brow." He refers to the solution 
of the great problem of the sources of the 
River Nile. It is true that he never achieved 
that triumph; but when he died on May- 
Day in 1872, kneeling alone by his bed-side 
on the banks of Lake Bangweolo, he had 
done a more important work for Africa and 
Africa's millions, than the solution of "the 
problem of the ages" ever could have been. 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 51 

He did not finish the work so well begun — 
by tracing the waters of the lake on which 
he died to their outflow into the ocean; but it 
was speedily taken up by others. And they 
traced the water-flow through the Lualaba 
until they found it leading them by the great 
Congo River to the Atlantic. It is not yet 
twelve years since he died, but his work has 
given a wonderful impulse to the missionary 
work in "The Dark Continent." Missionary 
stations are dotting the rich and fertile regions 
of Central Africa, and, unless the more 
favored followers of Christ fail to improve 
the great opportunity that God has given 
them, the work will go more rapidly forward, 
until every hill and valley of Africa is 
brightened by the gospel of Christ. 

In South Africa already, " Hottentots, Ka- 
firs, Zulus, Basutos, and Bechuanas, have been 
evangelized. A large portion of the Cape 
Colony may now be regarded as Christian." 
It is reported that nearly sixty thousand con- 
verts have been gathered into the churches. 
"Education, long in a backward state, at the 
present time is making steady progress. The 
sphere open to Christian effort in South 



52 THE MISSIOJSTABY OUTLOOK. 

Africa has continued to widen, and it is 
steadily advancing northward to the Zanl- 
besi and the populous tribes around it. The 
new missions in Central Africa are being 
firmly established in full harmonious co-ope- 
ration with one another." If we look back 
to Africa as it was presented to our eyes in 
1840, and compare it with what we now see, 
we cannot fail to exclaim, "What hath God 
wrought ! " 

Polynesia was one of the first fields of mis- 
sionary effort after the revival of the mission- 
ary spirit towards the end of the last century. 
It consists of several groups of islands, vary- 
ing greatly in size. When first described by 
early navigators, it was thought that, in char- 
acter, some of the inhabitants would com- 
pare favorably with those of Christian lands. 
More intimate acquaintance with them 
showed that there were evils existing that 
could only be overcome by the gospel of 
Christ, applied by the Spirit to the hearts 
of the people. Each group of islands has 
a history of its own. But viewing them 
all as one great field, the success of the 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 53 

missionary work therein has been peculiarly 
encouraging. 

In the Hawaiian Islands, missionary work 
was commenced in 1820. At the Jubilee in 
1870, it was reported that there were more than 
sixty-six thousand converts during the fifty 
years, of whom nearly fifteen thousand were 
living and members of the churches at the 
close. This company of believers constituted 
one-fifth of the population, about as many, in 
proportion to the population, as in the United 
States to-day. In 1873, the churches were 
able to dispense with help from the Mis- 
sionary Society and to assume their own 
support. 

The Society Islands have few European 
missionaries among them, but they have six- 
teen ordained native ministers, and more than 
two hundred unordained native preachers and 
school-masters. Fifty-three hundred mem- 
bers are gathered in the churches on the 
different islands, with fifty schools and two 
thousand scholars. A recent writer says: 
"Taking the Society Islands as a w T hole, we 
may say, they have for many years been 
Christian." 

E2 



£4 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

Hervey, or Cook's Islands, were first visited 
in 1821 by native teachers from Tahiti. With 
a population of fifteen thousand, there are 
now nearly twenty-eight hundred members 
in their churches. The island of Aitutaki is 
small — only nine miles in length, with a 
population of about two thousand. Rev. S. 
J. Whitmee says it "has long been regarded 
as a model mission. Perhaps here a larger 
portion of the population has long been in 
consistent standing as church-members than 
would be found in almost any other place in 
the world, viz., one-third. The authorities 
have never allowed intoxicating drinks to be 
introduced into the island ; and that has 
doubtless done much to preserve the people, 
and has made their elevation more easy and 
more rapid." 

It may surely be regarded as exceedingly 
encouraging, when it is reported that, in 1880, 
these islands, where, less than a century ago, 
heathenism reigned, have now seventy-five 
thousand consistent members of Christian 
churches, who are cared for by sixty-five 
hundred ministers and assistants; that there 
are nearly twenty-five hundred day-schools, 






THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 55 

with more than sixty-eight thousand scholars, 
and that the nominal Christian population is 
about four hundred thousand. 

The missionary enterprise has reached a 
magnitude, and is achieving successes that are 
but imperfectly understood by many Chris- 
tians. It is very possible that many are 
praying for the spread of the gospel and the 
conversion of the heathen, while they know 
not how large are the answers to such prayers 
that God has already bestowed. " The Gos- 
pel in All Lands Missionary Almanac," for 
1883, gives the names of one hundred and 
twenty-two Missionary and Bible Societies 
that are laboring in foreign fields. Of these, 
forty-four are in the United States ; ten in Can- 
ada; twenty-nine in England; five in Scot- 
land ; one in Ireland ; two in France ; three 
in Switzerland; ten in Germany; four in 
Sweden; one each in Belgium, Finnland, 
Denmark, and Norway; and one in the Ha- 
waiian Islands. There are also three small 
missionary bodies in Polynesia. Dr. Dor- 
chester, in his interesting work, "The Pro- 
blem of Religious Progress," sums up the 



56 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 



statistics of the various Missionary Societies 
of the world, for 1880, so far as accessible: 



CO 

a 

.2 
'35 

en 


CO 

B 
3q 


a 

.2 

w 

3 


co^ m 


.2 
a 

1 

a 

o 


a co 

*b 


CO 

"o 

o 

a 
W 
>> 

a 

Q 


CO 

a 
CQ 


NORTH AMERICA. 


83 


951 


1,214 


4,930 


211,833 


332,054 


386 


37,349 


SOUTH AMERICA. 


12 


54 


86 


675 


12,981 


47,585 


53 


5,456 


EUROPE. 


63 


682 


2,934 


2,070 


94,036 


42,076 


304 


13,366 








AFRICA. 






103 


589 


3,934 


1,991 


164,701 


518,075 


1,696 


98,381 


ASIA. 


175 


902 


2,570 


11,299 1 245,685 | 341,686 


4,265 


, 217,858 


OCEANICA. 


568 


i 2,587 


1,471 


9,587 1 128,096 


532,120 


2,522 


75,192 


AGGREGATE. 


504 


j 5,765 


12,209 


400,552 


857,332 


1,813,596 


9,316 


447,602 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 57 

The missionary work, for the conversion of 
the world, that was sneered at in the begin- 
ning of the century as a hopeless under- 
taking, fit only for unreasoning fanatics, has 
grown to be the grandest work for the good of 
men and the glory of God, that the sun looks 
down upon. The results above given answer 
the question, "What can we do?" by showing 
what those who obey the Lord's command 
can do, when they go forth depending on the 
gracious promise of his perpetual presence. 
It is faith, not presumption, when the follower 
of Christ says, like the Apostle Paul, " I can 
do all things through Christ which strength- 
ened me." When William Carey, in 1792, 
said in his memorable Missionary Sermon: 
"1. Expect great things from God. 2. At- 
tempt great things for God," he was far wiser 
than many of the worldly wise men of his 
day; for he had faith in God, and for that 
faith the very broadest foundation is laid in 
various promises of the Scriptures; but none 
is broader than that which is laid in the 
promise to those who faithfully carry out his 
Commission : " Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world." 



58 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 

In every direction, as we look over the wide 
field, we see new doors opening; and very 
often, as in the newly opened fields in the 
inner provinces of China, in Japan, and in 
Central Africa, the reaper is called to tread 
rapidly in the footsteps of him that scattereth 
the seed. We see every where in the eastern 
sky the signs of coming day, and the cry 
waxes louder, from the many fields, for the 
laborers to gird themselves and go forth to 
gather the harvest of the Lord. One who sets 
himself to study, with care, the fields, their as- 
pects, the signs of promise, and the already 
assured success, will see manifest evidence that 
the Lord is with his servants, indeed, and 
will be ready to exclaim, "The works of the 
Lord are great, sought out of all them that 
have pleasure therein." One has well said: 
" Those who will not see the wonders of God, 
see them not ; but those whose eyes are open, 
see them everywhere, and bow before the 
mighty God, whose ways are wonderful." 

THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. 

Another marked feature of the work now 
in progress, is the careful preparation made for 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 59 

holding the ground once gained. In every 
field there has been an effort to secure to 
the converts, as early as possible, the Sacred 
Scriptures in their own tongue. 

At the beginning of the present century, 
there were translations of the Scriptures, in 
whole or in part, in only fifty of the lan- 
guages of the world, and in all probably not 
more than five million copies in existence. 
Numerous nations and tribes had no means of 
access to the printed word of God, and many 
had no written language whatever. 

Some judgment may be formed of the vast- 
ness of the work that has been performed, 
from the mere statement that, at the present 
day there are translations of the whole, or of 
parts of the Scriptures, into about three hun- 
dred languages and dialects, and that nearly 
two hundred million copies of the Bible, in 
whole or in part, have been printed. In 1878, 
the Rev. Charles E. B. Reed, Assistant Secre- 
tary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
said: "The entire Bible has been rendered, 
during the present century, in about fifty- 
five languages, the New Testament in eighty- 
four, and parts only in eighty-seven." 



60 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

Let us endeavor to comprehend the amount 
of labor that is implied in this undertaking. 
Mr. Reed said : " The Version of Dr. Judson 
[into Burmese] occupied nineteen years; the 
Bengali of Dr. Carey, fifteen years, at least; 
the Tahitian twenty years ; the Arabic sixteen 
years." The time spent on the Chinese by 
Dr. Morrison and Dr. Milne, and recent re- 
visers, may safely be assumed to be at least 
twenty. The average of these five versions 
would be eighteen years. Hence, the fifty-five 
translations of the wnole Bible would amount 
to the labor of one man for nine hundred and 
ninety years ; that is, if the labor on those 
versions had been commenced in the reign of 
Alfred the Great, of England, they would, 
have been completed only at the present time. 

This immense amount of work w r as further 
increased from the fact that, in more than sixty 
of the languages or dialects, it was necessary 
to give to the people a written language, in- 
volving the formation of alphabets, the prepa- 
ration of grammars and lexicons, as necessary 
aids in the long work of translation itself, 
Mr. Reed says : " Considering the varied diffi^ 
culties of the work, I think we have evidence 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 61 

of the special aid of the Spirit of God given 
to these men, and should thank him who has 
enabled them so nobly to discharge a task of 
unexampled responsibility and importance." 

In addition to the Scriptures that have been 
issued in these numerous languages, there has 
also been a commendable zeal in the prepara- 
tion and publication of Christian works. 
Thus, in the Bible and Christian literature, 
there is a good foundation laid for the growth 
of the converts from heathenism in sound 
Christian knowledge, so necessary to fit them 
better to retain, to defend, and to teach to 
others the gospel which they have received. 

Dr. Legge, formerly missionary in China, 
lately Professor of Chinese in the University 
of Oxford, refers to the religious and scientific 
treatises published by the Protestant mission- 
aries in China, and adds : " But above all, 
they have given to the Chinese people a ver- 
sion of the Holy Scriptures, complete, which 
Popery never did, and never would do. . . . 
This is a boon, the greatest that could have 
been given to the great heathen people ; this 
is a pledge of grand success for our missions 
in the future." What he says of its im- 



62 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

portance for the future success of the work in 
China, may apply with equal force to every 
nation and tribe for whom these versions of 
the precious book of God have been prepared. 

THE PROMISED DAY OF ISRAEL. 

When we look out over missionary fields 
and think of the work and its glorious results, 
we should remember that Christ has come, as 
the devout Simeon said in the temple: "A 
light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory 
of thy people Israel." What Zacharias said 
when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, 
should also be borne in memory: " Blessed 
be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited 
and redeemed his people, and hath raised up 
a horn of salvation for us in the house of 
his servant David; .... to perform the 
mercy promised to our fathers, and to remem- 
ber his holy covenant; the oath which he 
sware to our father Abraham, that he would 
grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of 
the hand of our enemies, might serve him 
without fear, in holiness and righteousness 
before him, all the days of our life." 

As the Light of the world, Christ is to 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 63 

shed life-giving beams on Jew and Gentile, 
each in his own order. There evidently is 
an appointed order indicated in the revela- 
tion of the future of Israel. Because of their 
rejection of their ^ wn Messiah, the hand of 
the Lord was turned against them, as had 
been foretold; and long have they been scat- 
tered, and oppressed. But their rejection 
was neither total nor final. There has ever 
been "a remnant according to the election 
of grace/' They have also a future of prom- 
ise before them. As the apostle says : " Blind- 
ness in part is happened to Israel, until the 
fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so 
all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, 
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, 
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 
for this is my covenant unto them, when I 
shall take away their sins." 

The fullness of the Gentiles has not yet 
come in, though, as we have seen, the Gentiles 
in growing numbers are coming to the light. 
Nor can the great and final movement among 
the Jews be said yet to have begun. But 
there is a moving in the valley of dry bones. 
The Jews, as is reported from various sources, 



64 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

are steadily increasing in numbers, in wealth, 
and in high scientific and intellectual culture. 
So rapid is their progress in all the various 
elements of social, intellectual, and political 
influence, that it is already a matter of con- 
stant remark among those who watch the 
moving currents of the world, and note 
their significance. The impression is gain- 
ing ground, that they are approaching, with 
firm and rapid tread, a great crisis in their 
history. It would seem as though that time 
is hastening on when, in the wise counsels of 
God, they are to hold a prominent place in 
the world, and bear an important part in 
movements that will vitally affect both its 
temporal and spiritual interests. 

It is eminently wise for those who labor 
and pray for the establishment of the king- 
dom of Christ in the world to be watchful, 
and ever quick to notice the signs of the 
times. Not the least important among them 
are those that indicate the opening of a new 
era for the ancient people of God ; for it is 
under their Messiah that the golden age of 
Israel is to be ushered in — that Messiah of 
whom their prophets spoke and their P^alm- 



THE MISS I ON AMY OUTLOOK. 65 

ist sung — the Lowly but Exalted One. We 
have been taught to know him, though their 
eyes have been blinded by their unbelief, so 
that they recognized him not. But in the 
Lord's own time, he will open the eyes of 
the blind, and the heart of unbelief will 
pass away, and they will look upon him 
whom they have pierced, and mourn, not 
with unavailing sorrow, but with that sorrow 
which "worketh repentance to salvation not 
to be repented of." Let us not forget to pray 
that the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and 
of Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, may speed the dawn of that 
day so full of blessing to them, and to the 
whole Gentile world ! " Pray for the peace 
of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love 
thee." 

There is no clue in God's word to guide us 
to the knowledge of the immediate antecedents 
of that great consummation. We only know 
that it is to follow, most probably, after no 
long interval, the coming in of the fullness of 
the Gentiles. The recent movements among 
the children of Israel may justly stimulate the 
Christians of to-day to large, energetic, well- 
F2 



66 THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 

directed efforts to preach the gospel as speedily 
as possible to every one of the Gentile nations. 
The success attending the missionary work, 
during the last forty years, has increased from 
decade to decade, and fully justifies the expec- 
tation of still larger blessings to crown a larger 
work in days to come. We have not yet 
comprehended the possible result, when the 
largest displays of Christian zeal shall be 
crowned by the fullest manifestations of the 
quickening power of the Divine Spirit. The 
effusion of the Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost, 
in Jerusalem, may be but a type, whose anti- 
type shall be a world-wide Pentecostal season, 
causing earth's sad and unsightly desert to 
" rejoice and blossom as the rose." If we 
speed, so far as lies within our power, the 
gathering in of the fullness of the Gentiles, 
we shall most surely aid in bringing in the 
promised day of Israel. 

The foregoing statements are not presented 
as a full exhibition of the work performed on 
the great missionary field, and of the results 
secured. Nothing has been said of the mis- 
sions among the Mohammedans, though they 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 67 

have long been carried on with great energy, 
and with very marked success ; nothing of the 
missions in Europe, an important field, and 
needing faithful Christian effort; for, as has 
well been said, " A fog may often be as dan- 
gerous as the darkest night." What has been 
presented consists of mere sketches, designed 
to show that the work is not a failure, but has 
been attended with such a measure of success 
as to call for devout thanks to God for what 
he has wrought. At the same time they should 
encourage us to more zealous efforts to enlarge 
the work, until it can truly be said of us, 
They have done what they could. Nothing 
less should satisfy the Christian heart ; nothing 
more does the Lord desire from his people. 

In view of what has been already done, it 
may be possible, with some degree of accuracy, 
to forecast the future of our work. A prac- 
tical question meets us at the close of our 
brief and imperfect survey : How long a time 
should it require to preach the gospel to every 
creature f This question does not ask, How 
long it may require to make disciples of all 
nations f There are elements in the latter in- 
quiry that lie entirely beyond the limit of our 



68 TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

knowledge, deep hidden among the things 
that belong to God alone. Into these the 
truly reverent mind will not seek to intrude. 
The real question that demands our attention 
has to do with what lies strictly within our 
legitimate province. It is simply this : There 
are so many million men, divided among so 
many nations and tribes, dwelling in such and 
such lands. In how short a time is it possible 
for the followers of Christ to carry to each one 
the tidings that a Saviour has come, and that 
in him are proffered forgiveness, cleansing, 
and everlasting life? if we scatter the seed 
with promptness and care, we may confidently 
look to God to give the increase. 

Let us look to China. It is possible that 
one hundred million of its people have now 
heard the gospel. In the provinces of Shan- 
si and Shen-si, there are probably few that 
have not heard of Christ and his salvation. 
Their population is twenty four million, and 
not a decade has passed since the work there 
was begun. How long a time should it re- 
quire to carry the same precious tidings to the 
inhabitants of the other sixteen provinces, 
even though none of them had yet heard it? 



TEE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 69 

And how long, when it is certain that many 
millions in these provinces have already list- 
ened to the glad sound? Numerous and suc- 
cessful missions have been preaching Christ 
for many years, in the eastern provinces of 
Chi-li, Shan-tung, Kiang-su, Che-kiang, Fu- 
kien, and Kwang-tung. 

There is also the territory in Central Africa, 
recently opened to us, along the Congo River 
and its tributaries, with a population of fifty 
million. It may be roughly estimated to be 
about nine hundred miles square. How long 
ought it to require to visit all those millions, 
and make known to them the gospel? 

Let the question be asked of some one that 
is familiar with the grouping and moving of 
men, in order to secure a certain end : " Given 
the Chinese Empire, and the Congo region in 
Central Africa, how many men, and what 
means would be needed to carry the glad 
tidings to all of their inhabitants, before the 
opening of the year A. r>. 1900?" Then, 
what would be needed to carry the gospel 
everywhere throughout the world by the same 
date? 

A case of life and death admits of no 



TO THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 

unnecessary delay; when famine or flood is 
abroad, action must be prompt, or in the case 
of many it will be too late. But everywhere 
in the wide missionary field, men and women 
• and children are dying — rapidly dying, with 
no glad knowledge of that Saviour who alone 

can make a dying Led 
Feel soft as downy pillows are. 

There is a deep pathos in the words of a 
poor heathen woman : "Tell your people how 
fast we are dying; and ask if they cannot 
send the gospel a little faster." 

Hark! the wail of heathen nations; 

List! the cry comes back again, 
With its solemn, sad reproaching, 

"With its piteous refrain: 
" We are dying fast of hunger, 

Starving for the Bread of Life ! 
Haste, oh, hasten, ere we perish ; 

Send the messengers of life. 

"Send the gospel faster, swifter, 

Ye who dwell in Christian lands; 
Keck ye not we're dying, dying, 

More in number than the sands? 
Heed ye not his word — your Master ; 

'Go ye forth to all the world'? 
Send the gospel faster, faster — 

Let its banner be unfurled." 



THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK. 

Hearken ! Plush your own heart-beating 

While the death-march passeth by, 
Tramp, tramp, tramp! the beat of nations 

Never ceasing, yet they die — 
Die unheeded while you slumber, 

Millions strewing all the way ; 
Victims of your sloth and "selfness" — 

Ay, of mine, and thine to-day! 

Sound the trumpet! wake God's people! 

"Walks" not Christ amid his flock? 
Sits he not "against the treasury"? 

Shall he stand without and knock — 
Knock in vain, to come and feast us? 

Open, open, heart and hands! 
And as surely his best blessings 

Shall o'erflow all hearts, all lands. 



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